Buttering a hot ear of corn can challenge the patience and dexterity of many people. The usual approach calls for using a conventional table knife to cut a piece of butter and attempting to spread the butter over the ear of corn with the knife. As most people understand, the piece of butter is quickly softened or melted by heat from the ear of corn so that the piece of butter becomes awkward to manipulate and spread with a knife. Thus, the piece of butter may slip off the ear of corn leaving a portion of the ear partially unbuttered. Moreover, the butter commonly is unevenly spread over the ear of corn and may be completely missing from part of the ear.
A number of devices specifically designed for buttering corn on a cob are known in the prior art. Such devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,811,844; 2,903,997; 3,362,777; 3,736,152; 4,301,762 and 4,408,919.
Many of the devices disclosed in the prior art include means for supporting an ear of corn and/or a piece of solid butter such that the butter is applied to the hot ear of corn by manipulation of the butter holder about the ear or by rotation of the ear of corn in a corn holder. Such devices depend upon the heat of the cooked ears of corn and the melted butter forming a coating on the ear. Inherently, if the ear of corn cools before or during the use of the butter applicator, difficulties are encountered in proper application of butter to the ear of corn.